Syracuse, N.Y. -- Now that the Syracuse University football season is pretty much over for everybody but the statisticians, now that the Orange has guaranteed to deliver an eighth consecutive non-winning (or flat-out losing) campaign, it is not premature for me to engage in a bit of reconciliation.

I’m the one, remember, who looked at this season back there around Labor Day Weekend and forecast a 6-6 year. I’m the one who insisted that the Greg Paulus gamble was one that needed to be taken. I’m the one who predicted that SU would be playing a 13th game, even if it might have been off college football’s beaten path (i.e., in Toronto, site of the International Bowl).

Well, with the Orange wallowing at 3-7 and almost certain to finish dead last (again) in the Big East Conference, it’s time for me to admit that my Ouija board was a bit off kilter.

It’s true that SU is just a couple of plays here and there against Minnesota and Louisville from a 5-5 record. But it’s also true that it could just as easily have lost to Northwestern and be sitting today at 2-8 with wins over only Maine and Akron.

So what is, is: 3-7 . . . winless in the Big East . . . bound, perhaps, for 3-9, which was the same gift basket left behind last season by Greg Robinson.

Simply, this has been one disappointing ride, the lowlight of which might have been Saturday’s ponderous affair in Louisville where the Orange and Cardinals -- and the game officials, too -- punished those who watched with unrelenting tedium.

When football is good, it can be riveting; when it’s bad, it can numb. And that 10-9 loss by SU to the Ville was nothing if not a tranquilizer. Woe to that person who attempted to operate heavy machinery after exposure to that wretched thing.

Yes, absolutely, the Orange, which took only 58 athletes to Kentucky, has been wracked by defections and injuries (with Mike Jones and Dalton Phillips the latest to be lost for the year). And, fine, the Syracuse guys have played with a commendable passion, which is the least they could do in exchange for their $50,000 salaries. And all of that needs to be considered when assessing this first go-around by Doug Marrone.

But facts are facts. And the fact is that SU, pocked by a frightening shortage of offensive talent, has produced merely 59 points in five conference games and has scored more than 14 in just one of them.

Paulus, who a bit curiously remains the starting quarterback? He’s been a big part of the problem, certainly . . . or, maybe, he’s been only the most obvious victim of it. Either way, he’s tossed 14 interceptions (when not being sacked 20 times) and has averaged just 85.8 passing yards per game over the Orange’s last five starts. Meanwhile, the longest of his most recent 53 completions has traveled all of 22 yards.

So, no. Despite all of those good DNA properties Greg has brought to the team -- leadership, maturity, intellect, competitiveness, citizenship, etc. -- the young man has become (or has been rendered) a virtual non-entity on the field, where his arm has been more Jamie Moyer than Jonathan Broxton. And in the end, the harsh end of this football business, that suggests that the noble experiment has fallen short of expectations. Or, at least, of results.

There are two contests remaining before this trudge is officially over -- at home in five days against Rutgers and on the road over the Thanksgiving Weekend at Connecticut. And while it’s possible that the Orange could win either or both, that would not be the way to bet. No, the more realistic hope is that SU will continue to compete and that, finally, it will produce some points.

The goal, in other words, over these next 13 days is to actually make worthwhile the time invested by those fans in attendance . . . which has been a goal largely unmet for the bulk of October and November.

And, if not? As the wise men have told us across the ages, there’s always next year.

(Bud Poliquin’s freshly-written on-line commentaries, his column and his “To The Point” observations appear virtually every day on syracuse.com. Additionally, his work can be regularly found on the pages of The Post-Standard newspaper. E-mail: bpoliquin@syracuse.com.)